Enshittification at it's best.
Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
41–50 of 54 posts
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#42The cost of blocking ads has been equal to zero for nearly two decades now. I see no reason to suddenly start paying for this kind of stuff.
a lot of people use apps to access these platforms
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#43These paid offerings should include not only an ad-free experience, but also getting rid of all the dark patterns and other manipulative crap Meta loves doing in their apps and services. You know, preferences that actually stick forever, notifications that only notify you of things that actually happened, feeds that only contain content from accounts you follow and don't force-feed you recommendations, all that.
in theory switch to a user-pays model should align the incentives of the company with user satisfaction rather than the ads-pay model where the incentives is aligned to maximize engagement. i'm not optimistic that'll happen.
It depends on how you define satisfaction. If company measures it as usage, that aligns with algorithms that encourage doom scrolling.
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#44These paid offerings should include not only an ad-free experience, but also getting rid of all the dark patterns and other manipulative crap Meta loves doing in their apps and services. You know, preferences that actually stick forever, notifications that only notify you of things that actually happened, feeds that only contain content from accounts you follow and don't force-feed you recommendations, all that.
Ironically, this is why I stopped using meta social offerings as much as I used to and why I turned off notifications for those apps. I’m sure many people can say the same.
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> only see posts from people I'm friends with and groups that I'm in. If you're on the website (not app): https://www.facebook.com/?filter=all&sk=h_chr If you just want to see friends and not groups: https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr (I am "Meta Verified", but they still locked my account over my name even though I sent them my ID. They have been "reviewing" my ID for the past two months. If anyone ca…
Thanks for those links (really). However, having now used them, it turns out I still don't like Facebook. It's basically the same 3-4 users posting things I utterly do not care about. I guess the people I do care about are not on FB (or don't post there).
Basically, people stopped posting as the algorithm started taking control of your feed.
I discovered FB purity [1] recently, which does cut down on the algorithm's spam in your feed. But it turns out people have already moved on.
£2/month would have been a tempting proposition 7-8 years ago. But £4/month in 2025 makes no sense. It is only offered to make the regulators happy.
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Advertising can be privacy-respecting Not the effective kind.
The entire previous history of humanity we only had non-targeted ads in newspapers, on billboards, and on TV and radio, and everyone was ok with that. But suddenly, on the internet, it's somehow "not possible" to have advertising that isn't personalized or even dynamic at all. How so?
> and everyone was ok with that
not really
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#47Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Advertising can be privacy-respecting Not the effective kind.
The entire previous history of humanity we only had non-targeted ads in newspapers, on billboards, and on TV and radio, and everyone was ok with that. But suddenly, on the internet, it's somehow "not possible" to have advertising that isn't personalized or even dynamic at all. How so?
Even personalised advertising can be done without sharing personal data with 100+ third parties. For example, ask the user to fill out a survey about their interests, and then serve them more personalised ads based on their survey answers, all without sharing personal data with third parties.
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Advertising can be privacy-respecting Not the effective kind.
The entire previous history of humanity we only had non-targeted ads in newspapers, on billboards, and on TV and radio, and everyone was ok with that. But suddenly, on the internet, it's somehow "not possible" to have advertising that isn't personalized or even dynamic at all. How so?
I don't think that's true - I'm certain that the advertising has always done everything it can to maximise return on investment.
Re: Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
#50The people who are willing and capable of affording such subscription prices are likely also the same people who have the purchasing power to click on ads and buy things. So I don't understand the logic behind this.